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Italy slips out of innovation top ten: report

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Italy slips out of innovation top ten: report
Italy was 18th last year in terms of patent registrations per million inhabitants. Photo: European Patent Office

Italian businesses are becoming less innovative, with a decline in the number of patents registered, figures released on Friday show.

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The number of ideas registered with the European Patent Office fell by 2.7 percent last year compared to 2012, relegating Italy from the top ten.

Italians registered 4,662 patents in 2013, pushing it to 11th place worldwide and 18th in terms of the number of inhabitants.

Germany proved to be the most innovative country in Europe, coming third place behind the US and Japan with 32,022 patents last year, although the figure fell by 5.4 percent compared to 2012.

France came in an impressive sixth place behind China and South Korea, up 1.1 percent with 12,417 patents, while northern European nations filled the rest of the top ten.

Europe dominated the top ten when population size was taken into consideration, leaving ninth-place Japan as the only non-European country.

The Swiss swept the board with a remarkable 832 patents per million inhabitants, leaving Sweden to pick up second place with a comparatively meagre 402.

The nordic nation’s ability to generate ideas is however far greater than Italy’s, where just 60 patents were registered per million inhabitants.

The most to come out of Italy were from petrochemicals company Lyondellbasell, domestic appliances manufacturer Indesit Company SPA and Indesit Company SPA, a chemicals company.

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